Heading in the Right Direction

My Grandfather doubted our abilities in this particular piece. I can understand his concern. It is curved in three or four different directions. You think I could remember since I actually made the piece. The bottom is curved to match the cowl, the top is curved to match the roof, and then it is also curved front to back to also match the roof, and then it is rounded on the corners so that it looks nice. I have actually worked on this piece for three or four months and now they are finally finished. Here are some pictures of the process...

It starts out as a square block of wood. We made a pattern to make the top and bottom curve to match the cowl. We cut it with a band saw and then used an orbital sander to sand it to match. It took some time but it fits perfectly.

You can't tell very well but if you look at the top you can see that it is curved. It also has a slant to it to match the roof. We made this slant by setting it up on a joiner the angle that we needed and slowly cut away until it looked right. And then put a half inch radius on the front and sanded it to make it look smooth. We also cut the corners to match the curve of the cowl.

So to connect the side rails that are in the second picture to the header you cut a groove on the bottom side of the header and then cut the top of the side rails to go under it. This picture above is the header, it's cut out. And the picture below is the side rail with it cut out.